NHL lockout hurting beer sales in province, NSLC says

It seems Saturday nights in Nova Scotia have been a lot drier since the NHL shut down.

The sale of suds took a sudden downturn when the National Hockey League lockout started, said Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. spokesman Rick Perkins.

“We’ve already, like other provinces, seen an impact from the NHL (lockout), from October on, in decreased beer sales,” Perkins said in a telephone interview late Monday afternoon.

How that will effect the liquor corporation’s overall sales won’t be known until the holiday season sales numbers have been tallied, he said.

Provincial beer sales were poor in September, too, Perkins said.

“We had not a great September because of the enormous amount of rain that we had. Beer is very weather-dependent and event-dependent.

“So people aren’t watching the NHL. They aren’t getting together. They are not drinking beer on those occasions, and they also are not seeing the advertising.”

The impact of the NHL lockout is not so apparent at the province’s sports bars, said Steve Williamson of Big Leagues Dining Room and Lounge in Cole Harbour.

“We’re down a little bit (due to the lockout), but now that everybody has a big screen at home, they don’t really come out to the bars for sports the way that they used to.”

Five or six years ago, it was a different story, Williamson said. But with the popularity of big-screen televisions and many homes featuring man caves, sports bars have been scrambling to come up with other entertainment.

For example, Big Leagues has live music Saturday evenings — a night most Canadian hockey fans religiously reserve to watch Hockey Night in Canada.